That $300 hydraulic oil test kit finally paid for itself

I run a small cutterhead dredge near Cincinnati and I got tired of guessing when to change the hydraulic oil. So last spring I bought one of those portable test kits for $300 from a supplier in Dayton. First use it caught water contamination I would have missed until something seized up. Replacing the oil and seals cost me maybe $800 but the downtime would have been closer to $6k with a dead pump. Now I test every 200 hours instead of every season and it takes about 20 minutes. The kit is a pain to clean but the peace of mind is worth it. Anyone else swear by one of these or do you just send samples to a lab?

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felix1472mo ago

I mean maybe it's just me but I've never trusted those portable kits to catch the fine stuff. Sent a sample to a lab once and they found wear metals the dipstick test totally missed, cost me $60 and I knew way more about what was actually breaking down.

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